The Cannonball Book Exchange is one of my favourite end of the year things. I’m not always super enthusiastic about Christmas (because my family frequently descends into shall we call it loudly enthusiastic disagreements?) and because it’s the coldest, darkest time of the year. Plus, as a teacher, the Christmas holidays pretty much means I’m not AT work, but a lot of my spare time, when I’m not having to work to get everything ready FOR Christmas, or tidied up AFTER Christmas, is spent doing correction work. So many essays. Blergh!
So both the choosing of bookish presents for another Cannonballer and the excitement I feel at receiving a gift each year really makes up for a lot of the things I find difficult and stressful about December. This year, my book package arrived on the 22nd of December and I was delighted to discover that it not only contained a book I had wished for, Hana Khan Carries On by Uzma Jalaluddin, but also a book I didn’t even know I wanted and needed.
I have a Masters Degree from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and while my degree in medieval European history has proven entirely useless for my teaching career, I love historical non-fiction, especially if it’s about social history. How did normal people live? Why did they settle where they did? Why did they hold the beliefs they had? The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber and David Wengrow was only released in early November, which may explain why I hadn’t heard of it. Reading the blurb and about the book online, I’m now super excited to sink my figurative teeth into it, all 700+ pages. It looks so interesting!
Thanks also for the lovely card and the big bag of pecans, Esme. I am not allergic to nuts, but don’t always eat them that often. I’ve always been fascinated by pecan pies, and now I should have more than enough to make at least one. While I’ve set my reviewing goals low for next year, so as to actually manage to re-kindle my genuine love of reading – these books will most certainly be among my reviews.